Hey man, Just figured out if you hold the curser over the chart, and let the button appear in the lower right corner, then you click on that button, the chart gets big. I'm getting smarter all the time!!! Try looking at a 3 minute chart, lot less noise. Question, are you trading against the trend, or with the trend? Looks like you are trying to do both. Just learning to do one consistantly is hard enough, let alone both, imho H How's the back doing?
Huios, you might find this piece of advice (from a previous post by Baron) useful : "The problem is that Internet Explorer 6 has this dumb new feature where it resizes images that are larger than the window they are displayed in. If you hover your mouse over a resized image, like the one you posted above, you'll see an icon appear at the bottom right corner of the image, if you click on that icon, it will restore the image to its correct size. This feature can be disabled totally (which is what I did) by going to the following in your IE menubar: Tools > Internet Options > Advanced Tab > Multimedia > Enable Automatic Image Resizing. Uncheck that box and click OK." Tony, glad you're back and trading. Take things slowly.
By the way, that's not an issue (and that option is not even available) if you still use good ole trusty Internet Explorer v5.0 or v5.5. Microsoft, in it's infinite wisdom, included the new "feature" in v6.x
Did a little better today. Was busy elsewhere during the doldrums, that probably helped. Opening orders went ok, had to close em before 10AM numbers, or I would have probably gotten a bit more. But, can't complain. SPY trades went as per usual, but I felt better even so. The one trade that would have really worked well was broken when I lost my entire quote and order software. Had to call the order desk and exit at the market since I had no control. For what it is worth, the ECHOtrade order desk picked up immediately. I found out a number of folks (on the west coast I think) had lost their internet. All's well that ends well, except for the boluxed up trade.
No opening orders today. Had a bit of system trouble, plus some tweaking on the opening order criteria. WOULD have had a good day if I had left them in. SPYs are Killing me. I can't BUY a winning trade. I am really getting upset. Today my wife asked me if I should really be doing this. Today, for the first time, I really didn't know what to answer. I have never failed at anything I really set my mind too. And I have really SET MY MIND TO TRADING. But this is a different kettle of fish. The harder I try, the more backward I go. I don't THINK I am doing stupid moves, but if I try left, the market goes right without fail. Hell, I should do better just by random chance. I know one thing, I had better get it if there is an "it" to be gotten. There are not many folks hiring 50's something engineers who haven't worked in nearly a year, and are recovering from back surgery too. Oh well, enough whining.. Todays trades The charts in living glorious color are in the next 2 posts.
TONY: i don't know what you call what you are doing.....but that ain't trading!!! do you have a WRITTEN PLAN you are following to make these trades??? looking at your comments, i bet you don't!!! oh yeah.....you're gonna just magically pick up the right way to trade by paying your "tuition".....yeah right!!! the way you're going you ain't gonna learn shit until you've been administered some serious pain, like blowing an account or two..... state in ONE SENTENCE what the market has to do EXACTLY for you to make a trade tomorrow if you can't do that, WHY ARE YOU TRADING WITH REAL MONEY???
Tony don't try so hard. The opening orders thing Echo and Bright have going are not for beginners. Yeah, any monkee can calculate the entry, but that is the last of the objectivity. Okay, maybe any monkee can't... I recently asked the queston about the OO trades and the response was the exit requires a fair amount of experience to recognize the proper time to get out. If you don't have that experience, you won't be able to trade the OO effectively. Don't throw your money away. I promise you that you can make good money trading the daily chart using the 40 sma as your entry point. That time frame will let you see and learn all the same setups in slow motion. This allows you to "crawl before you walk, and walk before you run." If you take the time to look at some daily charts overlayed with a 40 sma you will see what I mean. Don't for a second discard the idea because someone tells you that you will get whipsawed to death. Not true. I'm telling you right now, until you have the trading savvy to react to one minute charts...and you will, you need to be looking at 60 minute, and daily charts. Example of the truth...you buy or short 1000 shares of a 20-30 stock. Overnite margin is 2-1. So it doesn't take a lot of dough to have 2-3 positions going. You make 2-4 points per position in a month. Do the math. And every sphincter you have isn't puckered. As your trading pool grows, and your experience also, you take more positons and or trade more shares. Go slow. There are plenty of daytrader losers. That's not unique. Be a winner. Trade for the big buck. Which would you rather do... check how your positions are doing with your Palm while at the San Diego Zoo, or sit in front of a computer all day going bug-eyed, and developing excellent sphincter tone. And don't tell your wife anything but "great"!
Tony: You've taken the last step that I don't have the balls to take yet: go trading full-time. In the last 18 months I've read 24 books and have spent at least 3 hours per day -- every day -- trying to figure this all out. My background is support for high end industry-specific software. I've been on my own for 23 years and, like you, thought I could master anything I put my mind to. Mastering this stuff is like trying to grab Jello. Have you read: "Trading in the Zone" by Mark Douglas? Here are his Rules and Truths, which I have pasted next to my monitor: I Am a Consistent Winner Because: I objectively identify my edges. I predefine the risk of every trade. I completely accept the risk or I am willing to let go of the trade. I act on my edges without reservation or hesitation. I pay myself as the market makes money available to me. I continually monitor my susceptibility for making errors. I understand the absolute necessity of these principles of consistent success and, therefore, I never violate them. The 5 Fundamental Truths Anything can happen I donât need to know what is going to happen next. There is a random distribution between wins and losses that define an edge. An edge is nothing more than an indication of a higher probability of one thing happening over another thing happening. Every moment in the market is unique. Good Luck. I feel your pain. 50