Tony; I am a mechanical system trader and feel very confortable trading this way. I have developed a system that is similar to your Skyscraper and Bottom Feeder scans and was hoping to incorporate parts of those into my mechanical system. I assume, from your posts, that you would not recomend that I do so. Thanks; JJ
Unless you want to incorporate a DISCRETIONARY trading methodology into a MECHANICAL SYSTEM. I personally wouldn't do it because I'm NOT comfortable with it. But you said that you are comfortable with it, so I guess you will need to test it out. But, again, I would recommend real-time testing Vs. Backtesting, because you have to fine tune the robot based on whatever indicators you want to add in. If I were you, I would study chapter 7 in detail and see if you can program that in, because the difference between winning and losing is right there. Buying intraday pullback (bottom fisher) and selling intraday rallies (sky scraper) provides the best reward to risk ratio. Good Luck Tony P.S. Don't overlook the other scans. Those who have automated "some" like the Usual Suspects and Knock Down.
Where can I find the oz scans? Are they TC2000 scans? Are they in a book? They are tossed around here as if everybody knows what they are. Someone enlighten me as to where I can find them? Ed
The morning started off a little frustrating. I had a clear pallette on my Oz minders. The market opened and soon after symbols started showing up in my minders. Only one problem, the symbols did not look right. I called RT support. I told the rep that a couple days ago I had problems with the scanners. I read her the symbols that I had in the Power Trader scan. She told me that she had the same symbols and there was not a problem. I knew that they were wrong - they were all down. I hung up with her. I was watching a stock in the Level II. My 1 min chart was lagging by 10 to 15 cents - more than a few seconds. I called RT support again. The tech had me log out and log back in, causing me to be connected to a new server. Problem cured. However, he did not note the server that I was connect to before he had me log out. OK, I pull up SEBL. The low on the 1 min chart was showing 23.74. The low on the L2 and daily chart was showing 22.29. I called support again. The same rep as the first call. She then tells me that they were having a problem with the OZ scanners earlier and they knew about it before I called. DA! As I was speaking to her my SEBL data corrected. Needless to say I was not real happy but I was determined to make a good day of it anyway. BRCD showed up on the Knock Down scan this morning. It opened, traded down, pulled up and started trading down again. I entered a short position at $23.11 10:04 AM. I Placed my stop at 23.35 which was just above the pull up. Next thing I knew, Tom Costello is talking about BRCD on CNBC. The thing starts to drop real fast bottoming at 22.61. My Target was 22.40. It traded back up and eventually hit my stop. Yesterday, I felt that I did not give my stop enough room to work so I did not move it right away today. Once the price broke the days low (22.90) should I have moved my stop. Where to? I'm getting better at moving right along to the next trade after taking hit. BUD looked real thirst quenching (Even know I hate BUD). This was my first time trading a listed issue. I tried to get a fill at 49.61 and again at 49.66. Before I knew it the 49.70 day's high broke and I did not feel like chasing it After lunch the futures were still screaming and I couldn't see any great opportunities to enter long. I watched PAYX. What a beautiful uptrend. I wanted a little pullback but she wouldn't give me one. PAYX was not on the scans. I learned my lesson about going short on strong up days. I really wanted to short something when the futures turned but I opted to walk away from the computer. Probably a good thing Mike.
Wow, couldnt imagine doing it by hand. I came up with something pretty similar to bottom fisher on my own fiddling around with my old Windows on Wall Street program, which actually got posted on the Street.com way back in those bubble days -- http://www.thestreet.com/comment/charted/724698.html Great minds think alike? lol jk
Update- I have only made about two trades off the scans the last few days. so I have not udated. I was up a very small amount. I had been doing well trading futures the last few days. Today I put on my biggest trade ever and took my biggest loss on that wierd news. Tommorow I will go back to these scans and trade the futures much more selectively and smaller because that has been a good formula for me.
Hi The usual suspects and knockdown scans show a stock breaking out or breaking down after a period of consolidation. What is the minimum period of consolidation that you look at ? Do you also combine the scans with other indicators like MACD divergence etc that is if a stock pops up in the usual suspect scan and it has also displayed some kind of momentum divergence would that be an example of a higher probability setup. Thanks
Short 3000 BEAS (Sky Scraper) holding overnight Short 3000 SANM (Sky Scraper) holding overnight. Cancelled the stops with two minutes to go and the squeeze came. I didn't cover (stops would have not triggered). Down 0.15 on one and 0.03 on the other. We will see what happens tomorrow. Tony
Breakouts after consolidation are the beginner level for usual Suspects and Knock Down. Easy to identify consolidations (from a three day flag to 18 months base) and breakouts provide the beginner good reward to risk ratio as long as the entry is close to some logical support level. Trend reversal - first strong up day in downtrending stock on big volume or first down day on uptrending stock on high volume are for the intermediate trader. You still trade with the scans. I.E. long usual Suspects and Short Knock Down. Intraday reversals based on intraday reversal patterns (H&S, double bottom/top etc.) on big volume days are for the expert trader where he trades against the scan if the intraday pattern justifies it. Long Knock Down and Short usual Suspects. As to indicators MACD etc., you can add any of them to your charts if you like to use them. For me, it is all about support and resistance, nothing fancy. Tony