can someone give me a good starting place to set bollinger bands,stochactics,macd for intra-day trading.i like to pick a day the market has direction and try to make a few trades during the day.the setting of these indicators for how u trade is something i'm not sure about. any ideas would be appreciated. thanks dave
I don't use these to trade but I would just start with the common default values. You say you want the market to have clear direction then I would use MACD not the other two. But if it has clear direction, why use an indicator if you are clear about the movement? on indicators: remember that the longer you set the lengths the slower for the indicator to react and the opposite with shorter settings. But, whatever time frame chart you're looking at and whatever indicator you have, the market is always at the same price at the current moment on any chart. Be careful not too lose your clarity of price movement in a sea of indicators. Good luck.
thanks for the reply, i know what u mean when u say if it has clear direction then... but if i decide to get out of one trade into another then its nice to use something. i have been using 1 and 5 min. moving averages to try and pick entry points in trades. are these o k. anything u can tell me about finding and watching trends would be appreciated. thanks again dave
Hi Dave, Sounds like your asking for help with putting together a trade methodology as a beginner trader...a discretionary one. I'm a discretionary trader. I highly recommend you have strict rule-based criteria for entry, exit, stop/loss placement and profit-targets. Don't start trading with real money until you have a few good strategies in which each have strict rule-based criteria. Much easier to review trades and isolate trading problems when such occur...will occur. * What realtime chart program are you using (Tradestation, Metastock, QCharts...etc) ? * What are you going to be intraday trading (stocks, eminis, ssf, etf...etc) ? Every trading day there's a market that has direction and a market that doesn't. More important...during each market day there will be trends (weak to strong ones) and tight-trading ranges. Therefore, be prepared because there will be some non-trading days because there just aren't any trade signals. Some of the best Emini traders I know have about one non-trading day per week. Mainly because their strategies (trade signals) may appear several times a week or a few times per day... but not every trading day. Here's a profitable tip: Print out intraday charts of your favorite trading vehicle (ES, NQ, SPY, QQQ, BRCM...whatever)...every trading day... (I print out ES and NQ because that's what I trade) print via your favorite intraday charts and put them in a nice binder... (I print out 1min, 3min, 15min all session, 15min non-all session and daily charts...takes about 15mins of work with chart annotations) I can put 3 months of the above intraday charts in a 2 inch binder. That 15mins of printing will allow you an easier time to see repetitive price patterns than trying to scroll around your charting program on your computer. Trading is a business and this printing process should be among your daily job tasks. You'll also have a nice organized feedback material when away from the computer. Last of all...no indicator is going to make you profitable. How you interact with the markets will determine your profitability. Therefore, spend a lot of time working on the psychological aspects of trading. In fact...there's some good posts here at EliteTrader in the Psychological thread... http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=35 and welcome to the markets. P.S. If your still looking to meet traders from Florida...check out this thread: http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=8133&perpage=5&pagenumber=1 NihabaAshi
thanks alot for the reply, sounds like good advice to me. i use speedtrader and their charts . thats all.so how many stocks do think one should try to follow? what settings do u use for bollinger,stochastic,macd,and what minute moving averages do u use on an intra day basis to pick entry and exit or do u? i have been trading off and on for 4 trs. lost money. i'm not going to let it whip me. your advice on the psychology is good also. i read a book by martin pring that had a cd with it which i really liked. i think i am very close to finding some degree of success. Again i appreciate your reply.
Dave, Gotta love your ethusiasm. I trade the Eminis and live in another country. More importantly, how I trade the Eminis is not suitable for your stock trading and vice versa. Thus, its best for you to talk to someone from within the U.S. (preferably within Florida) and that's also trading stocks... successfully. Here's a suggestion...click on that link I posted above about Florida Traders Hook Up... (here's the link again plus 2 more about Florida traders) http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=8133&perpage=5&pagenumber=1 http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=16136 http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=14673 then click on the trade posts names under each trader that saids they are from Florida. Review their messages and write down those traders that on a few occassions have said or hinted they are trading successfully... (time consuming process...but worth it) then send them each a private message with your phone number. I know a few here at ET that have done the above and are getting some very useful help with their trading...often profitable help from someone local. You may also check for stock traders posting journals...journals that looks like the trader is doing well eventhough he/she may not be from Florida: http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=29 Here's another thread you need to review so that you'lll understand why some traders will only offer generalities instead of spending a lot of time in providing in-depth trading tips or help... titled To Share or Not to Share at http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=16098&perpage=5&pagenumber=1 If your looking for a complete understanding of something that works... do it in realtime...during real trading conditions...such requires that person helping you to be more of a one-one-mentor. May be worth the expense (if they want to be financially compensated) to you when/if you can find someone like that in Florida. NihabaAshi