I am trying to find traders with experience like you speak of and hope to get some input from some like that. Some of the traders I know were the kings of the world scalping Nas stocks. Many then blew up their accounts and some stop making money. I have seen how hard it has been for traders to switch styles and adapt. Some are still sitting around waiting for things to return to back in the day. Drives me crazy listening to it. So like you pointed out I am not looking for the generic top 10 trading phrases. Those have been reproduced on many threads already. I am asking for some the details as long as they would not adversely effect your trading. Nitro what is your approach?
This all seems reasonable... But then this is in stark contrast to what you wrote above I know people that trade this way... nitro
nitro, can you give an example or two of what you consider to be a detail? i'm not asking you to give away a real detail that you actually use. just a general example would be fine. thanks
bigscalper, these 2 interest me. how do you deal with losing/winning streaks? and how do you handle a gap past your stop? thanks
silk, i hope you don't mind answering a few questions.. so i take it you want to buy stocks going up and short stocks going down. if i wanted to do this on monday, how would you suggest i find a long candidate? what pleases you enough so that it qualifies as a stock going up? i understand to add to winners and not to losers. but what tells you when to add to a position? you must have some type of rule for this. also, THIS IS A BIG QUESTION FOR ME..... say you initiated a long position and you just added to it. now say it is starting to not go your way. are you going to exit the entire position or are you going to take off what you just added? basically, i'm wondering if you treat add tos separate or if you treat the position as a whole even though you've added to it a few times? please keep in mind i realize that you don't want to give away your EXACT methods of doing the above. if you could make up fake examples off the top of your head that would be fine. i'm just trying to understand your general thoughts on these issues. THANKS!
If a long starts going against you, you have to determine the reason. If it is because futures have pulled back, you have to use your futures trading skills and decide if they are likely to continue there down trend. If that seems like the only reason the stock went down, then maybe you still have a good long. Consider putting on some shorts to in weaker sectors to hedge. In most cases you do not want to sell a strong stock just because futures start going down. For this type of trading it is important to be able to trade multiple positions so that you can hedge situations like the above. If the stock starts moving against you without the futures moving against you, then you may have a real dog. You then have to determine if the trend has been broken or is the stock just taking a breather. I usually do not sell unless i'm feeling alot of pain. After a stock has crossed a certain "pain" threshold it is ruined in most cases. That is where experience comes in to know whether this line has been crossed.
There is nothing on this thread or any thread that I have read that tells you how to trade in any way different than what isn't already written in a book. There are two exceptions...the opening orders and bullets. Other than those two methods, everything here is a rehash of already thoroughly discussed topics in any two or three good books on trading. All that really comes to light here are the experiences each trader has using the various methods. As two people can watch the same sunset and have completely different experiences, so too, will any two traders have different experiences to relate, even though they might use identical trading methods. Someone could post "here's what works for me every time" and when you use it you lose money. The only way to find out what works is paper trade what you think will work first. Then paper trade some more. And then some more. You must learn for yourself what works for you. And you never really know until you trade it live. The steps are the same for everyone...crawl, walk, run. Read study, practice, trade. My original contribution is to comment on why I think the posts have been more about the mental and emotional aspects of trading recently. From the last week of July forward the market has been somewhat sideways, ie not trending. It is much more difficult to trade a sideways market. Most guys here probably had monster profits in June and July because the market trended. The traders who had good profits in late July thru this last week are the ones who quickly applied range trading techniques, and those who have been selling theta. When trading is good, everyone is talking about how their method is working. When trading is not good, the mental aspects come in to play. I have read that trading a range method and a trending method simultaneously will smooth the earnings curve. That makes sense but I have not studied it. It seems the curve might be smoother, but: will overall profits be as high; will transaction costs significantly increase? In the long run, which makes more money alone, a trending or trading method? By employing the two together am I increasing or decreasing profits? Now if I read someone elses study on the matter, that study will only be valid to me if the author and myself trade exactly the same way. That is not likely to occur. Bottom line: you have to do the work.
inand, Interesting point! One thing that I half disagree with [maybe 85% disagree with] is the part about paper trading. Paper trading is lacking one thing that real trading lacks - FOCUS. The easiest way to put it is the analogy of getting somewhere by getting EXACT directions, as opposed to looking at a map and getting lost. With getting exact directions, you may get to your destination, and very likely efficiently. But by using a map and getting lost, and going down some inane street for a mile only to find out that it's a dead end and is in the middle of a ghetto [and there was a sign in when you turn in, but it was behind a tree and it's pitch black outside] and saying to yourself, hmm, the Sears tower shouldn't be on this side of thigs in relation to where I am - how can this be, Ah, because Milwakee runs in a diagonal- of course!!.... The point is - if someone gives you directions, all you have learned is how to get from here to there. If you get lost trying to get somewhere, now you are learning your way around the city... Paper Trading is OK, but leave that pacifier behind ASAP and start getting lost in a trade with small numbers of shares AND TAKE NOTE OF EVERYTHING... nitro
I was thinking about things this morning and was trying to see if there was any other business out there where you would want to help your competition to become more competitive. I couldnt really think of one. Anybody know one? I guess what Im asking is: is there any benefit from helping other traders to improve?