This is my risk account as I've said. I'm leaning towards trading the major fut mkts and possibly some stocks. Thinking about an IB Univ. acct. to trade 'em all. I wish I was good at math so I could do some options.
Greetings Don, What I may do is open a couple of acct's. One for leveraged equity and another for futures. Perhaps 50/50 or something. Just gotta find the good houses. I'm closer today to making a decision that I was 3 months ago though. I know, I know, STFU and just trade already.
ha ha, you obviously got mixed up on which multi-national bank you wired in from. These days, going from UK Pound Sterling to US Greenbacks is just about 1:2. Next time, convert to US funds BEFORE you wire. TS
Trade futures, stock index, 25 to 40%, i hope you were talking per month. ... Come on guys/gals ER2 trading is an accident waiting to happen. Why run with the puppys when the big dogs trade ES and or NQ. ER2 is tiny volume. When the mkts get fast and furious the fills and spreads in ER2 will be brutal, there will be many unfilled limit orders, mkt orders filled be worse than the sink backing up. VOLUME is what index traders want, they want that vol to avoid the problems created from the above illiquid mkt situations. Technical analysis WORKS best with HIGH volume as the setups, support/resist lines etc are more reliable. Yes i understand where it looks better to trade ER2 because it trades in 10ths and has a higher handle value relative to Es and NQ.........BUT (THE BIG BUT), in the long run it is always better to trade with volume, trade with the institutions that hire the best traders and brainiacs in the whole world. Beginning and professional traders alike (especially when daytrading) will get a feel faster and better of the nuisances of the ES, NQ and in the long run will be rewarded far more than trading a puppy like ER2, think about it. Why learn by watching a third class instrument? drives me goofy........"I trade the ER2." GRRRRRR!!!!! Look at the volume stats at end of day, here is what one will find.....ES has approx 3 times as much vol as NQ.......NQ has at least twice as much volume as the ER2. there is a reason for that, the BIGS trade the instruments that are used as hedging toys, they are actual hedges (not all, so relax). Did i mention that those that trade the ER2 drive me goofy?.......... Do not save a dime in costs by trading useless stuff. trade what the bigs trade. next year this small trader is going to trade bigger, still small but bigger. I need some competition, come on challenge me.
Oldschool listen to the stonedinvestor I've never seen such crap advice on a thread before. Do this, do that, split it into three pieces, give me twenty grand ,keep the rest in cash- start daytrading mini futures Jesus Christo folks! A BULL comes out of the woods, clearly intimidated by all the " newness " he sees and " computers talking; " He hasn't traded since 2002 and you want him to stare at a computer all day in a Captain Kirk chair? Alright Oldschool, My trading account is $100K as well. I have found the proper balance to be 300 shares of great quality mid priced stocks and between 1500 & 3000 of lower priced speculative names. Keep the total count of stocks to around 10. Each stock is it's own story and personally I wouldn't worry about having a " diversified " portfolio. Oldschool it's the same as 2002! You pick a stock for the right reasons, because it intrigues you- you run it through some basic technical parameters, at least Relative Strength & Money Flow, all easily found, check Insider activity- I don't like stocks that have everyone cashing out at my expense. Now using a modified Peter Lynch strategy what do you know? Well if your knees act up every now and then after exercise your probably pretty aware of how many people need replacements of knees & hips and such that's just an ever growing market with the baby boomers entering Prime Bone Fracturing Stage, (I made that up call it PBFS) a stock like Zimmer makes a lot of sense. With oil so stubbornly high one could think nuclear and Brush engineering/ Wellmen makes Beryllium (they are the only ones) this goes into nuclear plants besides having other attributes & is used in aerospace. Unfortunately copper is an input cost to making Beryllium so BW has been fighting that headwind, that will abate in time. I'm super keen on Eagle Materials here they do cement and wall board for housing. As housing recovers this stock will double, even without a recovery it should trend up nicely on the highway spending bill of last year. Stock is cheap. I like Commercial Metals too, I've been tracking it- probably will buy this week. Altiris is a very strong looking (and safe) tech stock. Liquidate is a very interesting new guy on the scene- this is government auctions of big stuff school bus's, power plant parts, etc. I think this is the real B to B killer App! HERBALIFE* BUY ME oldschool! This is just an APlus company sitting smack in the same baby boom investing idea category. Heres some more speculative plays: CTEC ( cholesterol screening that must strike home! This one is going to be huge: quick test done in Dr's office treatment same day) SGMO (interesting biotech I believe their technology is so unique they will be bought out) OSIS gets no love they are so into port and airport security it isn't funny but they're still labeled a semi and frustratingly move with the group. Some day this dog will run. CAMH, HMIN, INPC,... I'll hold off on the $2 and $3 ones until you get started. Happy Hunting!