Considerations for a Wannabe Trader...

[Considerations for a Wannabe Trader...]

Hey JS, are you referring to Shaowtrader (Peter Reznicek). Super great guy and fantastic trader. I learned a lot about market internals from him over the years.

 

Hi Tim, the name sounds familiar (Peter Reznicek) so that's probably correct. I'm not a pairs trader and haven't kept up with their webinars on the subject, but their crew seem like stand-up guys that know their stuff.

[Considerations for a Wannabe Trader...]

Hello all, I am new to trading and I am finding it very challenging. Maybe it is because I started in July of 2011, and we all know what happened in August of 2011. It is just so hard to find a system that works consistently, and in all kinds of markets.

 

A former colleague of mine told me about a strategy called pairs trading, he said it is a better way to manage risk so you make more money (or, lose less money). Has anyone ever traded pairs? Where can I find out more information about how to do this?

 

The broker I use (ThinkOrSwim) has a guy that does some webinars on pairs trading; you can go through his archives here: Pairs Trader Archives

BTW.... if you ever type in the url please note that this is .net not .com ( I've seen some very bad reviews about the folks at the .com domain and I don't want you to mistake the two).

[In Need of Direction.]

I think one of the reasons this business is so fascinating is that you are always learning and trying to answer questions so I wouldn't despair over this.

 

Just from my personal experience, I think new traders tend to set themselves up to lose by investing all their time and energy ( and money! ) in looking for the strategy that is a %100 winner. Forget it, it doesn't exist, the future can never be known.

 

For me, I turned the corner when I took a disciplined approach to a high-probability strategy.

[A Decision for a Newbie]

extrasignals.com claims that it yields 81% every hour

 

Provided you did not misunderstand their claims - anyone that promises 81% profit per hour is blowing smoke up your skirt. :smoking:

 

If you have limited resources, why don't you just get some books from the library, do some online research, open a micro account and see if you can turn $100 into $200?

If you can't go from $100 to $200 you aren't going to go from $1000 to $2000.

[One of My Strategy.. Need Your Comments]

Your rule 2 and rule 3 is good but I think, there is some problem with rule 1. As most of the traders prefer their local time as well as day trade. So, they will not follow rule 1.

 

Tell me about it. I have my alarm clock set to 1:30 AM (London opens 2:00 AM my time). But, while I would prefer to work normal (local) hours, I find that the London session and the London/US overlap provide the best opportunities to catch substantial EUR/USD moves.

 

My dream is to move to Dublin so that I can give up my 'vampire hours', drink good beer, and chase redheads.

[Floored the Movie ... in 8 Parts]

I saw this documentary about six months ago, let me see if I remember correctly; one guy lost his shirt and went back to clerking, one was so drunk they had to give him subtitles, one decided to go live in the woods, and another was convinced that computers were trying to kill him in his sleep.

 

Thank God for Linda Raschke. She came on right when I was so depressed I was ready to go into the bathroom and slit my wrists. Out of the whole movie, she was the only one that seemed really confident, successful, and happy to be trading. I remember thinking, "Geeze, the only person in this documentary with a set of nuts is the little blonde girl." And I really liked her comment about social Darwinism.

 

Glad I saw the documentary, but I'll never watch it again - unless I have a handful of xanax.

[Technical Analysis Book Recommendations?]

I've just recently started looking into trading and I'm interested in buying a book about technical analysis. ...

 

You can download Technical Analysis A to Z.

 

Also, I liked Technical Analysis by Charles D. Kirkpatrick and Julie R. Dalquist. I mention this book because the authors are very objective in evaluating the effectiveness of different indicators.