I looked at the sector map at SmartMoney. Yes, it's interesting but fancy colors are not going to make me money. No Michael, only you can make you money. I've never stumbled across a decent sector heat map, especially a realtime one. The map at Smart Money is interesting it that it gives you the relative size of the various players within about a dozen sectors, and if you click on a particular company there's a drop-down menu that will provide additional info. Frankly it seems better suited to swing traders or short-term position traders. Then again, for true sector-based trading I think Hitman's setup and methodology is the way to go.
"I'm trying to envision 20 lines of sectors on the chart. That's pretty crowded. " MGB That would be a little crowded all right. I'm not using it to track sectors. I have the important (in my opinion) sectors of the Nasdaq on it just to give me an idea of whats going on. But if you wanted to track all the sectors you could open several charts with 8 or 10 on each chart.
Nicodemus: Do you use eSignal Market Scanner, too? They have some nice canned scans. Rally Scan, Hot Groups Scan (nice for scanning for hot/cold sectors), etc. The Hot Groups Scan for sectors is nice. You can even specify the minimum number of stocks in each sector and specify minimum volume and minimum price. You can make it Nasdaq only or NYSE only or everything. MGB
MGB I don't use the scanner. I don't trade individual stocks. I live in the country so am limited to a phone connection. I found out early on that you can get creamed trying to get out of a fast moving stock with a slow moving connection
Nicodemus, I live in the country also and am looking into a satellite link-up. The speed (data throughput) is supposed to be impressive, but there may be unacceptable delays. I'll let you know how it works out if you're interested.
I've got satellite Shorty. It does a good job for downloading data but upload sucks so it is worse than a phone for order entry. There's another thread here about the subject.
Nicodemus: Would you mind sending me a file copy of your Sector Overlay Chart? I would to add it to my eSignal to see what it looks like. Send to: mgbloomfield@hotmail.com Thanks, MGB
I use 3 monitors but only one is used to watch stocks. I keep everything simple, I group 4-7 stocks together depending on their sector.So on a 17 inch screen I`ve have about 120 stocks I keep track of on a daily basis. EX. ,I have brokers and banks in a column (C,MER,MWD,LEH,BAC,ONE,GS,SCH,JPM,AXP,NITE,ET,FNM) and oil, oil services(XOM,RD,CVX,BP,DO,SLB,HAL,RIG,BHI,NBR)etc....etc. If you watch sectors and trade them you must include the leader of each group on your watch screen. EX. IBM for computers, MSFT for software , C or MER brokers , XOM for oil ,AMGN for biotech.....etc...etc. I notice Hitman trading sectors but the stocks he usually trades are the lesser known or traded ones in the group. That`s not to say its wrong but I wonder why .I know if you want to take advantage of a move in a sector you need to follow and more times than not trade the leader of the group. Their are advantages of trading the leader or the more liquid and known stocks. First ,you can do size,also if you are playing a sector that day most big money will flow into the leader and than maybe flow down to the lesser known names in the sector.So your biggest moves will usually occur with the leaders of that sector.My other 2 screens are used for charting, I watch 1,5 and 60 min. charts. Along with stoc.,MACD,and 5 and 8 period moving avg..I concentrate on overnites but use sector trading as much as possible when any sectors meet my trading criteria.
There are many advantages to trading tier 2/3's, the specialists in those stocks are typically much easier and the tape a lot more readable, and when I do see a sector move I probably missed the move in leader already, and I still have time to get in a tier 2. The same applies to gap-up's, I can usually get into a tier 2 with no gap on all but the most bullish/bearish sector news. Also, in the case of nasty morning reversals, if you are in a leader you are dead, in a tier 2 as soon as I saw the leader collapse I sell market and I often get out flat or for a small loss. Last but not least unless you trade say, more than 1000-1500 shares there is almost no reason to trade stocks like C (which is BKX not XBD by the way) which doesn't really move as much as the tier 2's. When I trade OSX I always watch SLB, I use it as confirmation but I rarely trade it. The biggest names in a sector almost never moves as much as the lower tier's simply because there is a lot more volume needed to push it higher. Anyway MGB as I said if you plan on trading sectors intraday you just gotta have multiple monitors, no scanner will do, trust me on that. BTW what's up with your trading, are you switching style?
MGB, Along with Hitman I'm also curious as to whas up?. Haven't seen you around here much, only sporadically. I rarely get over to the MSN boards these days, usually no more than once every 3-4 weeks, but I've noticed you playing with Stock Scouter, and more recently Market Momentum, etc. Can't tell if you're trying to tie all this together, switching from intraday to swing, sampling this 'n that, etc. And are you no longer daytrading NVDA?