I was wondering if anyone could explain a few important aspects of the tape to me? For example, what is a cross order? how do i notice when there is a cross order happening, and what benefits or downfall does it have on a buyer/seller What are refresh orders exactly? I know it is when there are more prints than stocks being offered or bid from the quote. But from the bid/share size of a single quote or all the quotes that came before the print? How do i spot these? And what effect do they usually have on a trader, as well as how to capitalize on them. How do people "hide" their size? How do i notice when someone is perhaps hiding their size, what sort of conditions should i look for to spot these, and again, how you trades be done when there is a size being hided. Finally, what are double prints? Why are they so important, What do they tell us? How could we use them to our advantage? lastly, i was wondering if anyone could share some insights to their strategy for knowing when to get in and get out of a trade in general. what sort of things do they look out for, regarding bid/ask prices, bid/ask shares, openbook? *how long do you guys usually study a stock before you go in on a trade? Do you just look for the uptick and look for a reasonable ratio for bid/ask size for shorting? That's what I know so far, but i would love to hear more on what you guys keep track of and what you utilize as a tool in determining the right direction of trades, as well as the timing for your entry and exit. Let's hear them! Thanks in advance guys.
I've read the threads regarding tape reading all the way through. In addition, I have also read the post by Maverick on double prints. First of all, I would like to thank you, Maverick, for writing that fantastic little article. I literally read that and tested it out the following day. I noticed CVX was showing a lot of double pritnts, at 700, 1400, 1000, 500, i mean everywhere. Naturally i got very excited since i just read about them last night. So i bought a 100 shares, then another 100, and another 100, and sold them at 300 right before the prices start to drop again (i'm normally not that accurate at timing and spotting the best time for entry and exit, but i did well that day) And from only 300 shares, i made about 62 dollars out of it. So thank you so much for that article. Do double pritns happen very often? And if so, how many should i see before i know it's really a strong buy. I mean sometimes there would be a lot of them , but also a lot of times, there would be an odd one here and there, with a lot of time in between. Finally, I was wondering if you/or anyone reading this would want to show us beginner traders more things to look for like the tip on doubleprints, I t hink that would be very very helpful. For example, could someone explain how to spot fakeouts, sudden change in the bid/ask spread(to a wider gap), refresh orders, cross order, and show us exactly why they are important, and how we could indicate them and use them to our benefits? Even little things would be much appreciated here. For example, given a certain scenario and situation, let's say the stock is going a certain way, and the sellsize is decreasing or increasing, bid size is decreasing or increasing, and the pritns are going off at whatever price, or whether there are a lot of people buying off the offer stocks, what do these all represent, what type of action would be more favorable here... I think more posts with insights and description like the one i just described here, and the one posted by Maverick would really help accelerate the beginner traders to a newer level. Speaking from personaly experience, having learned to identify double prints, and the meaning behind them, and actually seeing them being demonstrated in a live setting is just exhilirating. And by learning a few new things each day, no matter how trivial they are, it has no doubt helped mold me to become a better trader. The game is there, and the game is exciting, but if I could just learn all the rules(how to read different little things in the tape) it would no doubt make this a much more enjoyable game. =D I have already fell in love with this game, but being able to only spot downtick, uptick, and doubleprints, i certainly dont feel at all comfortable with what i'm doing. If anyone could share a little bit of insight I would really appreciate it. Have a good one guys.