I, being relatively new to this endeavor, would appreciate any comments from those with experience about their eventual determination if it is better to watch and trade many or a few or even one instrument. I have gone back and forth the past year with this question and wonder how you settled on your final answer.
does not matter its a question of style both work its just a style thing i personaly trade KLAC a lot and the sox and also trade the minis nq and es thats about it
I trade 5 stocks both long and short. Use the 15 minute MACD. I just started futures ES. Using 1 minute MACD. 5 stocks are CAT KLAC MWD EBAY WMT. Bert
I have found for me it is better to trade a very small number of stocks or indexes for my daytrades. I will generally pick from about six that I like to trade, depending on which ones are trending, consolidating, etc. Then I will daytrade only one or two of them for days and days at a time. For my swingtrades I follow a much larger universe and then screen for setups, but am not in more than four and usually only one or two swing trades at a time.
U130747, I just did some examination of the 5 stocks you mentioned using the 15 minute macd, and it does look pretty impressive - limited exposure in a diversified set of stocks. If you dont mind sharing, 1) Do you hold overnight? 2) What kind of returns have you been getting on this strategy? (monthly, anualized etc?)
Swtrader, Yes i do hold overnight on all five stocks all the time. Most of the gaps seem to be in my favor. Every once in a while they are not but it does not take too long to go with you. I started with 200,000 divided between the 5 stocks. Each month I reallocate the total amount equally between the five stocks so that I am equally invested in each stock. Right now the account is at 417,332.00. Every once in a while I will replace a stock. So far this year I have replaced MSFT LOW and NVDA. I replaced MSFT with NVDA in march. NVDA did extremely well but I just replaced it with EBAY, because NVDA got so low priced. I replaced LOW with WMT, cause I had trouble shorting LOW with Ameritrade. Said did not have enough inventory to short. So I basically moved my account to IB. Bert
I watch over 150 SP500 NYSE stocks. HOWEVER, for a week or two at a time, even for me there are maybe 6 to 10 that I trade day in and day out. After a while, they become "fairly" valued (in my style of trading) and I have to move on. FWIW, there is nothing like knowing what a stock trades like. The only real way to know that is to trade it regurlaly, if not day in and day out. nitro
U130747, Thanks for responding (I started with 200,000 divided between the 5 stocks. Each month I reallocate the total amount equally between the five stocks so that I am equally invested in each stock. Right now the account is at 417,332.00.) Over what period of time has this occured? Has it been fairly consistent or have you ever hit drawdowns? Thanks, swtrader
I trade 6 stocks sunw, yhoo, sunw, yahoo, sunw, yahoo. since i trade with 25K lots i dont put on much other symbols.
While many good traders trade a small number of stocks, the most consistently profitable traders I know trade several different names each day. They trade what's moving using a variety of filtering programs to spot opportunities in real-time. I've traded with filters for a while myself because it eliminates the boredom factor and highlights countless opportunities that I'd never see otherwise. If you're a full-time trader who doesn't use filters and is looking to diversify trading strategies, try experimenting with filters. You may find a great new primary or supplementary source of income.