I did not know there were so many ET millionaires. Out of curiosity, what do you with your money? Top computer hardware for ET?
That's a quote worth being in a gems thread !!! I'm considering printing and framing this quote and putting it in plain view of my monitors - ramble on brother qnome
Gnome, I appreciate your honesty. I have been day trading for the better part of 2yrs. now...Mediocrity at best. I would like to better my trading style and you seem to know your stuff. I read your "charlie bar" and it was obnoxiously simple. If you have others that can be put to good use, don't hesitate to comment. And if you don't want the nay sayers to heckle you, I invite you to email me at anytime. Again, Thanks for the help! ! !
Thank you for sharing your insights, and special thanks for the laugh I got from reading your signature! "Men are like fine wine. They start out as grapes, but then it takes a woman to stomp the crap out of them until they are something acceptable enough to have dinner with..."
Thank you Yannis, I know all basics about contract specification, order placement,technical analysis and getting familiar with psychological aspects of trading. I can run computer and charting but my head doesn't have enough RAM to program or backtest anything . Sad but true. I need help with developing simple strategy for liquid issue like QQQ or INT so I can start trading 100 share lots . I just cannot come up with anything profitable so far. I will look at Gnome's method and I also need shorter term method for a training purpose. I will appreciate any pointers you can give me. hombre
wow, you just have to be a millionaire and every guy at ET bows down - no matter what you say. as if 200 and 50 MAs were just invented ... gnome no offense intended. i wonder if you smile as well about this burst of sympathy. peace
Hombre, I unederstand. Here's what I would do (but, since I tend to throw money at problems, take what I say with a grain of salt): If you really intend to be a professional trader and you feel that you need more training (especially early on in your career) and you can afford it (cost is $2-4K) there are some very good schools out there. My favorite is Pristine. Go, take their classes and follow their advice. An alternative is that you feel that with a good trading technique you could get going on your own. In that case, take a look at Don Miller's method - CD and tapes, marketed by tradingmarkets.com. What you say you want to accomplish is what he's trying to teach people to do. Don does not have the Holy Grail by any means, but I think it's a good first trading methodology to get you going and help you build confidence. Later, you can work to modify the basic technique to suit your personality better and improve its profitability. It does cost some money, but many people have it and I'm sure you can get it second hand, even here at ET. Actually, that same company markets a number of trading methods on CD and most of them are very good to get someone started. If Miller's stuff is too expensive for you, try one of Haggerty's strategies, or Landry's or Connors'. The key to this route is to focus on a single technique, learn it well, papertrade it thoroughly (on paper and simulator, real time and canned data) and, with an account at a cheap/good brokerage (eg, Interactive Brokers) start trading it for real with 100-200 shares, and grow the account gradually along the lines of a decent money management approach. I understand that some good techniques have been posted at ET and a couple of them even suggested here, but, my concern with that route is like someone is giving a raw recruit a gun and sending them off to war on their own. Better to be well prepared and supported before marching off into battle, imo. If acquiring the details of a proven technique to trade does not feel right as a next step for you, look into some of the better known trading software out there, like one of my favorites, OmniTrader. Not a Holy Grail either, but an excellent prospecting tool for your arsenal, coupled with a rich information source (from that group) to help you start to trade with the odds in your favor. Now, there's a different route altogether, that of just joining a trading chatroom, like Reality Trader, etc. Some of them do produce passable results, but if you don't really know how to trade by yourself, it'll be hard for you to follow what the lead trader is recommending in real time, and even harder for you to build your own, independent expertise. It will be important for you to focus on a desirable timeframe for trading, like intraday (eg, 5 min charts) or swing (eg, 60 min or daily charts) trading. That is mostly driven by your personality and has to happen real soon. Even if it looks attractive to you, my suggestion is not to join a prop trading outfit until you can trade on your own... but there may be a lot of disagreement about that, depending on your personality and what's available near where you live. I would assume that you'll want to start by trading stocks -- leave the futures and options, even forex, for later. Such leveraged instruments may appear to be just as easy (or hard) to trade, but those guns are really loaded and mistakes cost a whole lot more. Trust me, been there, done that. Take it very easy up front. If you haven't read it yet, study Alex Elder's books (eg, "Trading For A Living.") It will help you get started on the right foot, so to speak. I hope this helps. Any questions, feel free. Good luck to you