I posted this on the SnakeOil thread, and since it was an older thread, I decided to make a new thread here. I'm still pretty much overwhelmed with so many choices to be made. Please, if you can share some thoughts, I would appreciate it. I have done several searches on ET. If you can recommend any specific threads for swing trading, please do. Thanks again. ** I started in July of 2003 trying to learn how to trade. I have hundreds of links in my Favorites for web sites which have something to do with stocks, trading, or investing. I started with zero knowledge. I have gone through some trial offers and learned quite a bit. I'm still trying to figure out my own trading style, which at present seems to be heading toward swing trading. One particular trial offer I took, and again, I was just starting out, was for a very conservative money management service. I'm not mentioning the name because the service is reputable. But, I realized shortly after signing up that the vendor had some very expensive additional services which he was trying to sell to his captive audience. I purchased a service that cost about $100 a year, and I was placed on his email list to get offers every other day for an options service that cost $5000 a year. The emails were coming fast and furious, and of course, the big one was just around the corner, so don't miss this opportunity. I quickly tired of that. Another trial offer I signed up for, a stock picking service, was a great learning experience for me. The service is ok, but the marketing of additional offers was relentless. And very often I seemed to get a specific stock recommendation after it had already jumped up in price, maybe minutes or hours before. That tells you something. Along with that, I put their recommendations in a watch list. Some did poorly, some did ok, and some did better. I finally figured out that they were giving enough recommendations that they could always get a winner in there somewhere and use that in their advertising. When I requested my refund, the customer service was very slow in responding. This ET site has been a great help to me. I have reads hundreds of posts, followed many threads, sent a few private messages and have gotten some great recommendations, and I really appreciate it. Because of ET I've become very cautious as to what I will purchase in the future. But, on the other hand, I seem to have so much information now, I'm having a hard time making a decision. I want to find something I can commit to and go from there. I have gone over several web sites looking for solid information, which I think I can recognize now. I don't use the service, but I'm considering Ken Calhoun's DayTrading University. He has a business, of course, but his web site has some excellent free info for someone like myself trying to get a handle on trading. I notice he is very cautious, maybe never does it?, about promoting himself on ET. I like that. Are there any swingtraders (any time frame) on ET, that can recommend some services, whether software, data, or whatever, that is worth having? And, could you point me to some threads on ET for swingtrading that are worth reading. Thanks. **
Can't recommend any swing trading services, since I do not have experience with any of them. If you haven't done so by now, you may want to read some of the articles at Alan Farley's web site; author of "The Master Swing Trader": http://www.hardrightedge.com/ Find the articles under "Tactics". I also recommend that you get a good charting service. You can find a list of charting services here: http://www.daytradingstocks.com/charts.html The rest just comes with studying charts and experimenting with various swing trading techniques to find the strategy that you are most comfortable and most successful employing. Success will not come overnight. It usually takes years of studying and experimenting to develop a working strategy. Using another's strategy usually does not work, primarily because you will not have complete confidence in someone else's trading system. Years ago, I read that most of the successful traders use systems that they developed themselves. At first, I did not believe that statement. But, over the years, I have come to realize that that statement was probably the best advice that I have read in all the trading books that I have. If you truly want to become successful at this business, you will have to spend the time studying charts, experimenting and developing your own trading system. There are no shortcuts to success in this business. Charles
That's what I have been warning http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=161474&highlight=listen#post161474 11-24-02 07:50 PM Trading by Nonparticipation I agree with him: don't listen to too much people, it will be too contradictory. Indicators or not indicators are not important, what is important is how you put everything into a simple FRAMEWORK for you ! I have my own framework, it suits me but I'm sure it will not suit everybody sure ! So WORK by YOURSELF STOP TRADING FOR A MOMENT AND THINK ! http://www.snailtrader.com/id5.htm When I was first learning to trade, it was very difficult because it was so confusing. The amount of information on trading was overwhelming and dogmatic. Most ideas did make sense, but they were often in conflict with each other. Buy dips? Buy new highs? Cheap stocks? High flyers? Options? It was very difficult to reconcile. Additionally, not only did everyone I listen to have a different opinion, but they all sounded so authoritative! Who and what was I to believe? So although I studied and traded very hard I was unable to make money consistently because I didn't quite know what I was doing; my methods were so scattered. One day after another bout of frustrating losses, I remembered an old Japanese maxim: "A garden is complete when there is nothing left to remove." I decided at that point that my results were poor and diluted because I was listening to too many people and trying too many ideas, and that I needed to shut out the market and focus on the single thing that I felt would make me successful: myself. With this came a realization, and that was that most great traders trade different systems; hardly any of them trade the same. I should then focus not on their different systems, but their commonality.
One additional comment. If I were to spend money on a trading coach, I would stay away from those that teach a "one trading system fits all" approach. The only coaching professional that I would consider is one who will spend the time to learn my personality traits, risk tolerance and capital resources, and then use this information to GUIDE me into developing my own trading system, and how to modify my system as market conditions change over time. Of course, this type of instruction would be very expensive. However, it would also be the only type of instruction that would be beneficial in the long run. Charles
It's unfortunate, but there really aren't any short cuts to doing well as a trader. You've got to put in the hours yourself. Part of your problem is that you are putting yourself in another persons hands - and they don't necessarily give a rat's ass about you. The other thing is, it's hard to stick with another person's position when you don't share their convictions about the premise for the trade. If you haven't already, I suggest you look at some of the trading psych books. Van Tharp helped me and other people swear by Douglas. Also, get some back testing software and start designing your own ideas about the markets. Best of luck.
Thanks for taking the time to post some of your thoughts. I will check into the links. I see the validity of your advice to develop my own style. I have followed some trades of others never really understanding why, and it is confusing. I'm not sure when to get out. I'm working on understanding the moving averages, MACD, ADX, and a few other kinds of indicators. As more time goes by I'm beginning to see some things on the charts I couldn't before. I think I'm starting to recognize 'setups' for the swings. At some point I will try to post some charts and ask for advice, like what I'm seeing and what others might be seeing. Regards.
Hi slowtrend, have you tried out http://www.realitytrader.com they have a room for people who wish to take longer term trades (swing and position) as well as rooms for day trading. I have not tried them myself but I will probably take their 2 week free trial shortly, but if you do a search on them on here you will find mainly positive feed back. Perhaps if there are any current members of RT using the longer term trade room they might post some comments on this thread. Some of the guys working on RT used to post on this site too, but I have not seen anything of them on here for a while.