I 90% of the time trade listed stocks because as I've mentioned before therein lies my best chances. Trading nyse profitably requires spec/tape reading acuity. As if by wizardry some people have this remarkable ability in their "gut". Often times pretorian 2-an excellent trader and tape reader- will not be able to communicate some of his great success here although most gracious in trying and helping others. Hitman provides info on this super successful nyse trader of 9 months who while using very little ta racks up big wins. I believe there are these blessed people. However, I am not one of them and I need information. It seems it's easier to find a needle in a haystack then to find info--books--on this subject. Mjt referred me to Day Trading masters which provides some incite from 2-3 traders. Farrell's second book has a chapter devoted to it which has been quite helpful. I'm certain there must be others. I'm hoping (and praying) some of the well read traders here can give names of other books-preferably-or other sources of info on spec/tape reading skill. Much thanks in advance.
ken wolff who has a website called mtrader.com. He is a good tape reader and has written many articles for thestreet.com/realmoney.com where he discusses his strategies. You can find a nice summary of past articles here: http://www.daytradingstocks.com/lessonsandeducation.html disclosure: I'm not affiliated with Ken, his site nor TSCM
Babak-thanks for your reply-may I ask you to be alittle more specific where I can find tape reading info from these 2 sites. Again thanks
For NYSE tape reading check out the following two books: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0870340646 http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0870340743 While both were originally published in the 1930s most of the principles laid out remain valid today. As for Ken Wolff and Realitytrader mentioned above, they specialize in Nasdaq trading and thus probably won't be of much use to you.
Limbo, I'm not exactly sure what you meant by that last line in reference to me, but as I have said before, 90% of my tape reading is just watching for key points, and understanding how different specialists trade their stock from experience that I keep in a notebook. Watch those key points, watch how specialists deal with obvious stops, size prints, size quotes, large futs moves, "air pockets", breakouts, etc. I pay a ton of attention to large volume bars on whatever time frame I'm trading off of. Mainly however, it's just a gut feel. I'll be watching, and I'll start getting this jittery feeling and I'll be thinking that it's moving too slow, or the trades are going too slow, or it's struggling at a key point, and I'll bail on half my position, and my 2k shares knock it down a quarter, and I know I'm wrong and I bail. It's all in the gut. I wish I could explain it better. I've watched every day for 2.5 years, and I just can feel it. If you watch that long, so will you. Ask me questions in my room on monday, and I'll try and trade something with you in real time and explain what im feeling. As for those books, does anyone on ET own them, or read them. They look interesting. I don't know if they still apply to today's market, but I assume they do. I would be very interested in getting some feedback on them before I buy them.
praetorian, I own both of them but so far have only had the time to read the first one. Most of what's in there is still valid today. Many of the points made served mainly as a confirmation of my own observations, however, I'd still recommend it as an interesting read even for advanced NYSE traders.
Thanks to all who have replied so far(I hope more replies come forth). It seems incomprehensible that with all the books out there none are devoted to Nyse trading. Dlinke-thanks -I'm gonna get the 2 books you mention. However, think about it-prior to daytrading specialists made easy dough. With the onslaught of daytraders specialists have had to resort to a monster campaign of illusion-smoke and mirrors-to stay profitable. The spec. makes $ by confusing the trading public.-----Prae2 thanks again for very valuable insights-the more of this you can provide the better. My last comment regarding you simply means that when one is gifted in a certain area often time it is very difficult to explain this gift-this "gut". This is complementary and not to imply you didnt work extremly hard over the last years to achieve your skill
limbo, daytrading is not an invention of the 90s. There's been daytrading every since there's been exchanges. The space may be more crowded now but as long as human psychology doesn't change the principles of tape reading will stay the same.
dlincke--I'm not sure. I believe daytrading is an invention of the 90's. Certainly online and direct access daytrading. Again, yes, human psychology,sentiment does play a part,however, ultimately that stock is going to go in the direction the specialist wants it to go. In other words intra-day movement is determined not by mkt fundamentals but by the nature of the specialists trading account. It is our job to decipher(read)his need to buy stock or his need to sell stock at a specific moment so we can determine his direction and jump aboard. Honing our reading ability will determine whether we make or lose $.